Another plus to growing vegetables is that it is a great way to save money, something everyone is looking to do these days.
Homegrown vegetables offer many options that store bought varieties do not. Most stores carry one or two varieties of commercially produced tomatoes, melons, potatoes, etc. Growing your vegetables at home offers numerous choices. A home vegetable gardener can choose to grow heirloom vegetables that have been around for hundreds of years. A real advantage of growing heirloom varieties is the seeds are open pollinated meaning it is possible to save seeds of favorite varieties from year to year.
Another advantage of growing vegetables at home is there are more storage options available. Some varieties of vegetables were bred so people could keep their produce throughout the winter. An example of this is the heirloom winter storage yellow watermelon. This particular watermelon had yellow flesh and will keep at least until February under proper storage conditions. There are tomatoes that have been bred to produce under cool conditions so that a longer harvest can be achieved. Varieties such as the Burpee Long Keeper Tomato will store up to twelve weeks after harvest.
Growing vegetables can be fun. Choosing unusual colors such as blue, black or green corn can add variety to your palate and delight younger family members. Carrots come in a wide variety of colors too. There are purple, yellow, white and of course, the familiar orange carrot to choose from. While most colored vegetables will change to a normal color as they are cooked, that is not the case with all vegetables. A great example of this is the Peruvian Purple Potato. This potato is a perfect choice for spicing up a dull meal. Mashed potatoes will be purple in color and many cooks add chunks of this potato to their potato salad to give it some real flare.
With a bit of research every gardener in every location is sure to find some unusual varieties of vegetables that is sure to please their palate and fit into their gardening season schedule. Don’t forget to include the youngsters in the decision making. Children love to grow things and sometimes allowing them to grow their own vegetables is a great way to encourage them to clean up their plates. Who knows, you could just be starting a lifetime of healthy habits as well as learning to enjoy the time you have together as a family more, not to mention the fact that growing your own vegetables is a great way to save on the grocery bill.
